United Airlines will end 75 years of service at Oakland International Airport in June, airport and airline officials said today.​

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Airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said, "United has been a wonderful longtime partner and we're very disappointed to lose them because they're a global brand."​

However, Barnes said United only serves 1.4 percent of travelers who pass through the airport with its 11 weekly flights between Oakland and Denver.​

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She said, "There's lots of good news to balance the loss of United" because other airlines have been increasing their service to Oakland.​

United Airlines released a statement that read, "We are no longer able to continue the service between Denver and Oakland after June 3. The financial performance of the flights has made the losses too great to allow us to maintain the service."​

Looks like AS is picking up the slots for flights to HNL. If AS keeps building up on the West Coast, the AS+AA combination is going to start looking real good next to UA.

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Same with DL. DL has been expanding OAK with OAK-LAX in addition to the pre-existing OAK-SLC service.

While UA is whining about losses at OAK, DL has upgauged many of their CRJ-200s to CRJ-700/900's with F and glassware on the OAK-LAX runs.

I think the reality of the situation is that UA's OAK service competes with its SFO service, as Bay Area travellers who prefer UA may choose OAK instead of SFO if it's less expensive. It's not exactly a loss per se, it's more of a competitive pressure from in house.

SJC has also been downsized from a UA perspective. Lost flights to ORD and IAD. And the LAX flights are down to two CRJ flights.

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I was surprised to see in my flight history, a SJC-BOS non-stop on UA from 2004. I've generally not considered SJC a long-haul airport. Also, AA was always small jets to LAX (why I bought a smaller carryon), and UA always had some of their smaller planes on that route.

I'm really glad for the mainline SJC-IAH as sometimes that's a better schedule for me than the SFO-IAH flights, and I have that particular route booked 3x through the end of the year for trips to Central America. Also, frequently the SFO-IAH has no R space available (or X, for that matter), but SJC-IAH has been kinder so far.

It wasn't that long ago that you could fly SJC-NRT on AA. Glad that ANA will be bringing it back to HND.

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Because of silicon valley, that makes sense to me, though. I suppose Boston does in its own silicon valley way, too. In fact, if I had to pick four long-haul airports that make sense for where Silicon Valley connects to: SZX, AUS, NRT, and BOS.

I'm really glad for the mainline SJC-IAH as sometimes that's a better schedule for me than the SFO-IAH flights, and I have that particular route booked 3x through the end of the year for trips to Central America. Also, frequently the SFO-IAH has no R space available (or X, for that matter), but SJC-IAH has been kinder so far.

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There are so many SFO-IAH flights, that there's always one about the same time as the SJC-IAH flights. I can't see SJC having a better schedule. Availability (R, X, etc., as you point out), sure, but not schedule.

CO used to run the SJC-EWR redeye, which was great. SJC is really lacking a good redeye on UA. At least DL still has SJC-ATL.

There are so many SFO-IAH flights, that there's always one about the same time as the SJC-IAH flights. I can't see SJC having a better schedule. Availability (R, X, etc., as you point out), sure, but not schedule.

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No, not a better schedule, it just happened to be more available and more convenient for the specific weekends I was looking.

Hannaman said:

CO used to run the SJC-EWR redeye, which was great. SJC is really lacking a good redeye on UA. At least DL still has SJC-ATL.

There are no slot issues @ OAK - plenty to go around. Unfortunately, AS is turning into a great airline if you want to fly to Hawaii, and of little use for much else from these parts anymore.

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That's the big problem with AS -- they're the bandwagon airline. They find their niche, then kill it. Few years ago, they had tons of service to Mexico from the Bay Area. Then they realized that $300 tickets to Mazatlan didn't cut it.

I have a feeling they'll soon learn the same thing about $350 Hawaii runs and figure out what to do next.

That's the big problem with AS -- they're the bandwagon airline. They find their niche, then kill it. Few years ago, they had tons of service to Mexico from the Bay Area. Then they realized that $300 tickets to Mazatlan didn't cut it.

I have a feeling they'll soon learn the same thing about $350 Hawaii runs and figure out what to do next.

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Except they are filling a void left by AQ here, and possibly have some decent cargo business on the routes. I am more optimistic (overall) on longer term Hawaii success than Mexico stability, even though certain routes are going to be subject to a lot of tweaking/addition/elimination.

United had also started reducing flights out of OAK a while back as well, so what is your point?

The fact remains that the overall number of flights/seats that United and Continental have out of SJC has decreased as United consolidates at SFO.

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Sure, and I'll argue that the number of seats available on United out of SJC has increased in the last year. The only loss we had in recent memory was downguage of SJC-LAX to CR2s and the complete loss of SJC-SBA, which was EM2s. Other than that, we still have mainline service to DEN on everything up to 752s and we've picked up 737 service to IAH. It's a win, IMO.

BTW, I still believe that reducing capacity to LAX is the smart play. As long as they can scrape by, they'll continue to feed their LAX network without trying to race to the bottom against WN. WN's fleet of 737's out of SJC to the Greater LA area is unbeatable.

I do have to worry for other secondary airports in California. AA pulled out of BUR recently. ONT has seen passenger numbers slip significantly. The segment-based revenue modeling brought in by PMCO makes these airports no longer low-cost for the consumer, and soon Smisek will surmise there is no demand there.

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